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After having bunnies

22 10:45:13

Question
I have 2 bunnies a male and female.  We thought they were both females, but suprise!  Now I think the female is going to have bunnies in the next week will be 30-32 days.  I am not sure of their age, but around 6 months now.  When should I take the male out of the cage.  And will the male do anything to the bunnies when they are born? We already bought a cage for him, but they play together all the time and I think they will miss eachother.  Also, can she have the bunnies in the cage or do I have to make a nesting box?  Thanks for your help.

Answer
Hi Melissa

The male should come out as soon as you put the nest box in.  You will need a nest box and you will need to put it in at 28 days.  Here is a web-site that tells you how to set up a nest box

http://islandgems.net/nestbox2.html

Since she can become pregnant again immediately after she has the babies and any time there after she will need to be kept away from him.  You will want to keep his cage right next to hers so that she can see him.  Since they have a bond and you want to keep them together now would be a perfect time to take him and get him neutered.  He will need a month to recover and she will need about 8 weeks with her babies before they are weaned.

After the babies are fully weaned then you can re-bond the 2 of them.  If you keep them close to each other is should be fairly easy.  She might be a little bit harder since she now knows what it is like to be a mom and is always going to have that motherly instinct.  It is possible to bond neutered bucks and un-spayed doe's though.  After she weans her babies it is not a bad idea to consider getting her spayed.  Un-spayed doe's have a higher incidence of uterine type cancers.

I hope she is a good mom for you but just keep in mind that sometimes first time mom's are kind of clueless.  Just don't be surprised if she doesn't do a real good job.  

Good luck and I hope that you enjoy the babies.

Sincerely,

Pam